Michael Broomhead

Nearly 500 parking tickets issued by Chesterfield Borough Council last year were overturned on appeal, an investigation by the Derbyshire Times has found.

The authority handed out a total of 3,712 penalty charge notices (PCNs) to drivers across the borough in 2016, according to the results of a Freedom of Information Act request.

Of those PCNs, 1,108 were appealed and 497 were subsequently quashed.

Councillor Steve Brunt, the borough council's cabinet member for town centres and visitor economy, said: "We take no pleasure in issuing PCNs for parking contraventions.

"Our residents expect us to carry out parking enforcement on drivers who have parked illegally or dangerously.

"In the last year, we issued 3,712 notices for illegal parking.

"Of these, 73 per cent accepted they had parked illegally.

"Only 13 per cent of people who had received a notice challenged this and had the charge overturned.

"This can be for a variety of reasons including because the driver had not displayed the ticket correctly and has later proved they had parked legally.

"Since the borough council took on the responsibility of parking enforcement from the police in 2009, the number of PCNs we have issued has more than halved - meaning fewer people are now parking illegally in Chesterfield."

Guy Anker, of MoneySavingExpert.com, said: "Nationally, 56 per cent of people who go on to an independent appeal against their PCN win.

"That tells us there are problems where individual councils are wrongly ticketing.

"There's been a problem for many years with councils across the country treating motorists with disdain.

"It's an absolute disgrace.

"Anybody even thinking they have been unfairly ticketed shouldn't take no for an answer."

► What questions would you like us to ask public bodies under the Freedom of Information Act? Email your suggestions to michael.broomhead@jpress.co.uk